Beer In Ads #1706: Earth Will Be Destroyed In 12 Minutes

Monday’s ad is unusual insofar as unlike almost every other ad, this one is not for a beer. The 1985 ad is actually for a text-based video game from Infocom based on Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published today, October 12, in 1979, a year after the original radio show aired on BBC Radio.

The double truck ad decided to feature one of the scenes in the beginning of the book, when Ford Prefect takes his human friend Arthur Dent to a local pub shortly before Earth is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a bypass. “Six pints of bitter,’ said Ford Prefect…. ‘And quickly please, the world’s about to end.’”